Meat and fowl turner and lifter



July 4, 1950 B. SHR-EINER 2,514,098

MEAT AND FOWL TURNER AND LIFTER 7 Filed Nov. 6, 1947 Y Inventor Byron L.Shreiner Patented July 4, 1950 UNITED STATES rupee 4. Claims.

The present invention relates primarily to a roast turner and lifterwhereby meat such as a roastv or a fowl being roasted may be turned orlifted while being cooked without completely removing thev same from thepan or container in which it is being cooked or roasted.

It has been a major problem for housewives in preparing large roasts andparticularly in roasting fowl such as a turkey to turn the roast as isrequired during the cooking process so that all sides thereof may beappropriately browned and the like. With a roast for example the problemis not as great since turning thereof may be accomplished by means of alarge fork or the like. However, this is not possible when roasting aturkey or other fowl since damage. to the roasting fowl results with theconsequent unsatisfactory appearance thereof as well as lesssatisfactory cooking or roasting thereof. Various devices have beensuggested heretofore for turning and lifting such roasting objects,particularly roasting fowl. However, such devices have generally beenmade of flexible metal members such as stainless steel, and in additionto becoming very hot so as to: require the use of hot pot holders or thelike, they present a very difiicult cleaning problem after use thereof.Also the problem. of storage when not in use of such prior art devicesis fairly complicated. It wouldbe desirable to. provide a roast turnerin which. the cleaning problem is greatly simplified and in which thestorage problem is no more complicated than that of storing any verysmall kitchen utensil. It would furthermore be desirable to provide adevice of thischaracter which is simple and fool proof in use andwherein complicated shaped parts are completely dispensed with.

Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a newand improved roast or fowl turner which overcomes the disadvantages ofprior art arrangements enumerated above.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a new andimproved means by which fowl or other roasting meat may be turned orrotated during the process of cooking so that all sides thereof may beevenly browned and cooked and when the cooking process has beencompleted the device may be utilized to remove the cooked material fromthe vessel in which it has been cooked or roasted.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a device ofthe above character which is simple in construction, inexpensive tomanufacture and very simple to clean and store.

Further objects and advantages of the present 1 '1. by a substantialangle of the order of 90.

kl invention Will become apparent as the following description proceedsand the features of novelty which characterize the invention will bepointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this specification.

For a better understanding of the present invention reference may be hadto the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing how the device of the presentinvention may be used to manipulate a roasting object such as a fowl;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a sling embodying the present invention;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged View of a portion of the sling of the presentinvention; and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of a pan in which a fowl is beingroasted showing the position of the roast turner of the presentinvention during such roasting operation.

Referring now to the drawings there is illustrated a sling generallyindicated at ll! of a form so as to be readily used for lifting orturning a roast during the cooking process and particularly adaptablewhena fowl such as a turkey or the like is being roasted. Thissling W asillustrated comprises an endless loop ll formed of disposable, flexiblenon heat-conducting material preferably of cord or string which isalways available around any household. As illustrated this loop Il maybe formed by knotting together the ends of a string in an endless loopor by employing a suitable clamp for connecting the ends. Any suitablemeans for joining the same such as the knot i 2 shown in the drawingsmay be employed.

For the. purpose of forming a sling from the endless loop H which mayreadily support a fowl or a roast there are provided a pair of struts orspacer members it of identical configuration best shown in Fig. 3 of thedrawings. Each of the struts i3 is provided at its respective ends withmeans defining notches it extending along the longitudinal axis of thestruts it which struts are preferably in the form of rods having acircular cross section. The notches or slots M are 1 preferably narrowedat the portion remote from the ends of the rods l3 so as to receive andclampingly engage the cord in the form of a loop ii. The notches M atopposite ends of each rod are preferably displaced with respect to eachother y applying the rods or struts 13 to the endless loop ii in areversed manner as indicated clearly in Fig. 2 a binding action betweenthe cord and the notches is provided to insure proper positioning of theparts of the sling. Also a more satisfactory action on the object to beturned is obtained by this arrangement. It will be apparent that thestruts or rods I3 can be positioned in the manner shown in Figs. 1 and 2of the drawin so that opposite ends of the rods I3 engage spaced pointsalong one side of the loop I I and the other ends of the rods I3 engagespaced points on the other side of the loop I I.

Preferably the rods I3 are made of stainless steel, aluminum or someother material which can readily be cleaned and provides a permanentelement. It will be apparent that Only the two rods l3 need be stored,which require a very small amount of space and obviously can be kept inany utensil drawer wherein articles such as knives, forks or the likeare retained. When it is desired to use the sling the rods I3 areassembled with a piece of cord which has been tied in the form of theendless loop II so as to accommodate an object to be cooked or roastedindicated generally by the reference numeral I in the drawings. It willbe apparent that the operator can lift or lower one end of the slingrelative to the other end so as to cause movement in the form of rollingor turning of the object I5.

During the cooking operation the ends of the sling in the form of a cordcan be draped over the edge of the pan as is clearly shown in Fig. 4where the reference numeral I6 designates the roaster and the referencenumeral I5 designates the fowl being roasted. It will be apparent thatthe ends Ila and III) of the loop II may be permitted to extend outsidethe pan. Due to the fact that the cordin the form of the loop II is avery poor conductor of heat, the sling may be manipulated withoutemploying hot pot holders or the like as was required by prior artarrangements. Furthermore when the turning process and lifting processhas been completed the loop I I may be disassembled from the rods orstruts I3 in a very simple manner and disposed of so that the cleaningproblem entails only the cleaning of the simple rods I3 which as wasmentioned above can readily be stored. The complicated slings of theprior art although foldable into a small space entailed a storageproblem since other utensils became entangled therewith.

In view of the detailed description included above the operation of theroast turner and lifter of the present invention will be obvious. In theuse of the device the fowl or roast will be positioned between thestruts I3 of the sling It as indicated best in Fig. l of the drawing.The ends of the loop II- which essentially comprise the handles Ila andIll) will then be utilized to lift the fowl or roast into the roastingpan such as l6 for example and the handles may be folded over the fowlif desired or draped over the edges of the pan as indicated in Fig. 4since the cord will be flexible to permit any desired positioningthereof. When it is desired to turn the fowl or roast during the cookingprocess the handles are grasped and one raised sufficiently above theother to rotate the fowl or roast the desired amount, whereupon the fowland sling are replaced in the pan. This process is repeated so that allsides of the roast or fowl may be evenly cooked and browned as desired.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the presentinvention is not limited to the particular construction and arrangementshown and described but that changes and modifiestions may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Itis aimed in the appended claims to cover all such changes andmodifications that fall within the true spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent ofthe United States is:

1. A sling for turning a fowl or roast during the cooking processcomprising an endless loop formed of disposable flexiblenonheat-conducting material, a pair of rods, means for releasablyfastening one end of each of said rods to spaced points on one side ofsaid loop, and means for releasably fastening the other ends of each ofsaid rods to spaced points on the other side of said loop opposite saidfirst spaced points, said last two mentioned means comprising meansdefining slots in the ends of said rods for clampingly receiving saidloop while permitting ready assembly and disassembly of said rods andloop.

2. A pair of rigid rods adapted for use in a sling formed of an endlessloop of disposable cord for turning a roast or fowl during the cookingprocess, means defining a short slot at one end of each of said rodsextending along the longitudinal axis thereof, and means defining ashort slot at the other end of each of said rods extending along thelongitudinal axis thereof, said slots being proportioned for clampinglyreceiving said cord to hold portions thereof in sufficient spacedrelationship to support a roast or fowl thereon.

3. A sling for turning a fowl or roast during the cooking processcomprising an endless disposable cord loop formed of a poor conductor ofheat, a pair of rigid rods, means for fastening one end of each of saidrods to spaced points on one side of said loop, and means for fasteningthe other ends of each of said rods to spaced points on the other sideof said loop opposite said first spaced points, said last two mentionedmeans comprising means defining cut-away portions adjacent the ends ofsaid rods for releasably receiving said disposable cord loop to formsaid sling, said cord being used only once and replaced with anothercord upon subsequent use of said sling whereby only said rods need becleaned and stored for subsequent use.

4. A sling for turning a fowl or roast during the cooking processcomprising an endless cord loop,

a pair of rods, means for fastening one end of each of said rods tospaced points on one side of said loop, and means for fastening theother ends of each of said rods to spaced points on the other side ofsaid loop opposite said first spaced points, said last two mentionedmeans comprising means defining slots in the ends of said rods forclampingly receiving said cord loop while permitting ready assembly anddisassembly of said rods and cord loop, said slots in the two ends ofeach rod being displaced from each other by an angle approachingdegrees.

BYRON L. SHREINER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,395,424 Justus Nov. 1, 19212,337,142 Williams Dec. 21. 1943

